The oldest human artifacts found in Whitchurch Township date to 1500 BC and were found in the hamlet of
Ringwood (now part of urban Stouffville). Prior to the arrival of Europeans, two Native trails crossed through what is today Whitchurch–Stouffville. The Vandorf Trail ran from the source waters of the
Rouge River to
Newmarket, across the heights of the hamlet of
Vandorf. The Rouge Trail ran along the Rouge River and northwest from
Musselman Lake; both were part of the aboriginal and
Coureur des bois trail system leading through dense forests from
Lake Ontario to
Lake Simcoe. The territory was the site of several Native villages, including Iroquoian peoples' settlements around
Preston Lake,
Vandorf, and
Musselman Lake. In 2003, a large 16th-century ancestral
Huron village was discovered in Stouffville during land development; approximately 2000 people once inhabited the site (
Mantle Site), from 1578 to 1623. A
palisade protected more than 70
longhouses, and tens of thousands of artifacts were excavated here. In 2012, archaeologists revealed that a European forged-iron axehead, believed to be
Basque, was discovered at the site--"the earliest European piece of iron ever found in the North American interior." Other significant late precontact Huron village sites have been located to the south-east (the earlier
Draper Site on the
Pickering Airport lands) and to the north-west of urban Stouffville (the later
Ratcliff or Baker Hill Site on
Ontario Highway 48, and the
Old Fort or Aurora Site on Kennedy Road). The western end of Whitchurch and Markham townships was purchased by the
British crown from the
Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation in 1787 as part of the
Toronto Purchase. Whitchurch Township was created in 1792 as one of ten townships in
York County. It was named in honour of the village of
Whitchurch, Herefordshire in
England, where the family of
Elizabeth Simcoe lived (she was the wife of the
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Sir John Graves Simcoe). The first European settlements in Whitchurch Township were established in the 1790s. The south-Central Ontario
Mississaugas did not formally cede these areas of Whitchurch and southern Ontario until 1923. Between 1800 and 1802, John Stegman completed a survey of the township, which created a system of land concessions. This allowed for the organized distribution of land to settlers, with each concession containing five, lots. This layout remains visible today, as the road network in the area reflects the locations of the boundaries between concession blocks. Early settlers of this period included
Quakers and
Mennonites—two pacifist groups from the nearby
American states of
Pennsylvania,
Vermont and
New York. Both groups were seeking religious freedom, and were identified by the
Upper Canadian government as people with necessary skills and abilities for establishing viable communities that could, in turn, attract others to settle in the region. The Crown also granted land in Upper Canada to mercenary German
Hessian soldiers, such as Stegman, in exchange for their service against the
Thirteen Colonies in the
American Revolution. Stoufferville was one such
hamlet, developing around the saw and grist mills of
Abraham Stouffer, a Mennonite who with his wife Elizabeth Reesor Stouffer immigrated from
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1804. He acquired of land. Elizabeth's brother
Peter Reesor established what is today
Markham, first called Reesorville. Fifty-five more families from Pennsylvania, mostly
Mennonite, arrived in Stoufferville in the next few years. Stouffer's sawmill was in operation by 1817 on Duffin's Creek on the Whitchurch side of Main Street. By 1825 he had a gristmill across the street on the Markham Township side of Main St. as well. In the early 1830s, the old Stouffville Road was carved through largely virgin forest to connect York (
Toronto) with Brock Township; a
post office was opened in 1832 and the name Stouffville was standardized. In 1839, a new resident from England noted that Stouffville still had "no church (other than the Mennonite Meeting House in neighbouring
Altona), baker, or butcher," though "saddlebag [Methodist circuit] preachers sometimes arrived and held meetings at the schoolhouse." Stouffville was considered a centre "of Radical opinion," one of the "hotbeds of revolution," and it was here that
William Lyon Mackenzie set forth his plan for the
Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837–38. The hamlet of Stouffville grew rapidly in the 1840s, and by 1849, it had "one physician and surgeon, two stores, two taverns, one blacksmith, one waggon maker, one oatmeal mill, one tailor, one shoemaker." The population reached 350 in 1851, 600 in 1866, and 866 in 1881, with a diversity of Mennonite, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist and Congregational places of worship. In 1869
Ballantrae had a population of 75,
Bloomington 50,
Gormley 80,
Lemonville 75, and Ringwood 100. In 1876, there was a regular stage coach connection from the hamlet of Stouffville to
Ringwood,
Ballantrae,
Lemonville,
Glasgow,
Altona and
Claremont. In 1877, Stouffville became an incorporated village. Stouffville's growth was aided by the establishment of the
Toronto and Nipissing Railway, built in 1871, which connected Stouffville and
Uxbridge with
Toronto. In 1877, a second track was built north to
Jackson's Point on
Lake Simcoe. These connections were created in large part to provide a reliable and efficient means of transporting timber harvested and milled in these regions. During this time of prosperity, Stouffville businessman R.J. Daley built a large music hall, roller-skating rink, and curling rink. In 1911 Stouffville had a public library, two banks, two newspapers, as well as telephone and telegraph connections. Intensive
forestry in Whitchurch Township led to large-scale
deforestation,
eroding the thinner soils of northern Whitchurch into sand
deserts; by 1850 Whitchurch Township was only 35 per cent wooded, and that was reduced to 7 per cent by 1910. The
Lake Simcoe Junction Railway Line was consequently abandoned in 1927.
Reforestation efforts were begun locally, and with the passage of the Reforestation Act (1911), the process of reclaiming these areas began. Vivian Forest, a large conservation area in northern Whitchurch–Stouffville, was established in 1924 for this purpose. This development has helped to restore the water-holding capacity of the soil and to reduce the cycles of flash spring floods and summer drought. In 2008, the town had more than 62²km of protected forest; the forest is considered one of the most successful restorations of a degraded landscape in North America. Yet similar environmental consequences due to increased urbanization were projected in 2007 by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority as probable for southern Whitchurch–Stouffville (headwaters of the Rouge River watershed) if targeted plantings in this area did not begin quickly. Already in 1993, the Whitchurch Historical Committee warned a new generation of "Whitchurch-Stouffville residents" to be "vigilant to treat trees and forests with respect ... In the 1990s care must be taken so that urbanization and concrete road-building do not repeat the destruction to our forest heritage." Though growth in the hamlets of Whitchurch–Stouffville was stagnant after the demise of the forest industry, the population began to grow again in the 1970s, with development in Metropolitan
Toronto and the consequent arrival of new commuters. These developments led to a reexamination at the provincial level of
municipal governance. On January 1, 1971, Whitchurch Township and the Village of Stouffville were merged to create the Town of Whitchurch–Stouffville; the combined population was 11,487. The town's southern boundary was also moved four farm lots south of the original southern boundary of Main Street. This land was formerly a part of
Markham Township. Whitchurch–Stouffville adopted its coat of arms in 1973 (see information box right). The dove of peace, the original seal of Whitchurch Township, is at the crest, recalling the pacifist Quaker and Mennonite settlers who founded many of the town's communities, including Stouffville. The British Union banner of 1707 pays tribute to the United Empire Loyalists. The white church symbolizes Whitchurch, and the star and chalice come from the Stouffer family (Swiss) coat of arms. The growth of Toronto brought serious ecological problems to Whitchurch–Stouffville. Between 1962 and 1969, hundreds of thousands of litres per month of sulfuric acid, calcium hydroxide, and oil waste were poured into unlined Whitchurch–Stouffville dumps never designed as landfill sites and situated directly above the town's main aquifer. This was followed by years of solid waste from Toronto (1,100 tons per day in 1982). In the early 1980s, a group initially named "Concerned Mothers" found that the miscarriage rate in Whitchurch–Stouffville was 26% compared to the provincial average of 15%, and that the town had a high rate of cancer and birth defects. Though the Ministry of Environment was satisfied that the wells tested in 1974 and 1981 had negligible levels of cancer causing agents (
mutagens), the town opposed the expansion of the "York Sanitation Site #4". Only after much grass-roots advocacy at the provincial level was the site ordered to close on June 30, 1983. In 1984 it was reported in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario that
PCBs were found in well-water, and that 27,000 gallons of contaminated
leachate per day were leaking from the site, threatening ground water quality. With new commuter rail service on the
Stouffville Line in the 1990s, the drilling of two
deep aquifer wells to secure safer water for a large, new development in the hamlet of
Ballantrae in 1996, and the controversial expansion of the York-Durham Sewage System
Big Pipe with additional water capacity from Lake Ontario, Whitchurch–Stouffville began a major self-transformation. Not unlike the late 19th century, responsible land and water stewardship, as well as the positive integration of many new residents annually into the community, define the challenges and opportunities for Whitchurch–Stouffville in the years to come. The most significant challenge facing Whitchurch–Stouffville in coming years, however, is the federal government's potential development of an international airport immediately south-east of Whitchurch–Stouffville (the
Pickering Airport lands). Under the current draft plan, approaches for two of the three landing strips would be directly above Whitchurch–Stouffville communities: the first over
Ballantrae,
Musselman's Lake and the north-east corner of urban Stouffville, with planes descending (or ascending) from 535 to 365 metres (with an allowable building height in Stouffville of 43 metres); the second over
Gormley and the
Dickson Hill area (near the Walmart and Smart Centre). A "Needs Assessment Study" was completed by the
Greater Toronto Airports Authority for the federal government in May 2010. After a "due diligence review,"
Transport Canada released the report in July 2011, which identified the most likely time range for the need of the airport to be 2027–2029, and confirmed the site layout proposed in the 2004 Draft Plan Report. In late 2019, the Town decided to drop the word Whitchurch from signs, for "branding" reasons. While signs would indicate
Town of Stouffville, the official name remained Whitchurch-Stouffville. ==Government==